ICSID-CSDSI joint workshop

Another workshop of the ICSID-CSDSI seminar series was held at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development on March 3, 2015. 

Another workshop of the ICSID-CSDSI seminar series was held at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development on March 3, 2015. Alexey Khazanov, research fellow of the NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions, presented his paper  “On the Breakup of Nations: the Case of a Large Federal State”.

Abstract: This paper presents a modification of Desmet et al. (2011)* model with heterogeneity within regions that captures two factors that affect the efficiency of public good provision – the cultural differences between the center and the regions and the information transmission inefficiency due to the remoteness of the regions. In this model we introduce a multilevel voting procedure that allows to provide an empirical analysis of country stability in case of within-region heterogeneity. We calibrate the model on Soviet Union, Basque country and Alsace and we apply it to analyze the potential breakup processes in Canada, France and Spain. The results we obtain are consistent with recent developments in the secession processes.